Sunday, September 25, 2011

Hello and Goodbye

I am happy to say this is Interverbal’s (the blog’s) 6th
birthday. I am sad to say this will be the last post on Interverbal. When I
created Interverbal, I was an undergraduate just about to head out to grad
school. I did most of my best work on this blog during my first year or so as a
grad student. I was younger, feistier, and very much believed in doing science
advocacy in an aggressive manner. I spent most of my time working on
anti-quackery as it pertained to autism.

I have found that over time, my attitude has gentled. I
became more patient with mistakes and disagreements. My interest in constantly
debunking anti-quackery also waned.It
is clearly time to try something different. I am placing Interverbal into
retirement, but will leave it up as a resource, as I feel there is some good
work here.

On the other hand I am pleased to announce my new blog. Which will focus on teaching children with autism.

7 Comments:

I hope with your waning interest, you understand how little you knew and this has somewhat tempered and humbled you. Over the years, you have been a witness not only to the scientific fraud, but the advocacy fraud as well, from both sides. Meanwhile, those of us that are stakeholders have no choice but to continue on.

It was really just a simple lack of interest with debunking the same errors again and again.

"you understand how little you knewand this has somewhat tempered and humbled you"

Yes and no. There have been some tough pills to swallow. The toughest pill so far is the realization that there are so many critical gaps missing in the education research. The reality is that I have to rely on intuition and previous experience considerably more than I expected. So yes, I am humbled by how little I knew and still know.

On the other hand, my view of what constitutes bad science, inappropriate statistical analysis, fallacies, or pseudo-history has not really altered. I doubt you will find my opinion much changed on those matters.

“Over the years, you have been a witness not only to the scientific fraud, but the advocacy fraud as well, from both sides.”

Over the years I have been a participant in many interesting debates. Upon reflection, I realize these shaped me as much as the formal education I received. I value those learning experiences, but over the years I drifted somewhat in philosophy, especially from my earliest writings.

Here are three things to note. 1)Interverbal was mostly about debunking quackery. I believe that is a noble goal, but I am no longer consistently interested in it. No interest = no writing = dead blog.

2) My philosophy has shifted somewhat from the time I produced my earliest writings. I do not repudiate what I previously wrote, but in some cases it is not what I currently believe. I wanted to leave my old work intact, but have a fresh slate, separated by some of my older work.

3) I have a new strong interest in pedagogy. I want a stand alone blog to focus on that.

I'll drop a personal thank you for the guest/co-blogging you did at Autism Street over the years as well. Your careful focus on statistics and logical fallacy within research and the surrounding conversation, served to distinguish signal from noise IMHO.

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